When Xabi Alonso he was still lacing his boots on the main grass of the sports city of the Bayern Munichback in 2016, a few months before retiring, an 11-year-old boy worked daily to fulfill his dream and that of his family in one of the adjacent fields. Was Kenan Yildiz (Regensburg, 2005), Turkish father and German motherborn in Bavariaraised in Bayern and wearing the shirt Türkiye internationally. That boy with the last name «estrella», which is the translation of ‘Yildiz’ into Spanish, now challenges the Madrid coach in the Champions League. This is how life has changed in a decade.
«He was in the youth ranks of Bayern when I was there. I know him and he has had a fantastic progression, both at Juventus and with Türkiye,” Alonso said at yesterday’s press conference. The Tolosarra mentioned Juve and not Bayern because the Turk decided to leave Munich at the age of 17in 2022, in an auction that the Italian team finally won. Becoming one of the most promising young people in Europe, the Yildiz family placed Kenan’s salary at a figure «impossible» for Bayern. «We would have liked to continue accompanying him, but it is impossible. “We have not been able to satisfy their demands,” he said. Hasan Salihamidzicits sports director.
Tempted by Barcelona, Yildiz ended up in Turin, where he became one of the best friends of Dean Huijsen in the quarry of the Old Lady. They share a year of birth, 2005, and could celebrate their birthday almost at the same time: the Spaniard adds years on April 14 and the Turk on May 5. They were in the same locker room for almost two seasons, jumping between Juve’s reserve team and first team until Huijsen left on loan to Roma, a turning point in his career, because he would no longer return to the Turin locker room. He left the club for 19 million to go to Bournemouth and twelve months later Madrid paid 62 million for him.
Four technicians in two years
Meanwhile, Yildiz kept calm in Italy and gained a place as the new star of Juventus, a team adrift after almost reaching the Champions League on several occasions during the last decade. The Juventino team has not won Serie A since 2020 and its best result in Europe has been the Champions League round of 16 and the Europa League semi-finals 2023. In the last two years, four coaches: Allegri, Montero, Motta y Tudornow head of a locker room led by Yildiz.
He wears the number 10, starts from the left side and moves throughout the midfield, so the first comparison for the eager Juventus stands has been no small one: the new Del Piero. In 2024 Yildiz He debuted as a scorer in the Champions League at 19 years and 136 days and broke Del Piero’s own record, which avoids putting pressure on him in the middle of the team’s delicate moment. «I like being compared to me. “I like his bravery and I wish him luck, he needs it,” he explained a few weeks ago. The Turk, for his part, admits that he has “studied” the former player. «He is a legend and I am just starting out. I have studied him a lotWe talk often and see each other from time to time. But then everyone has their own path. “I am me and I don’t compare myself to anyone,” the Turk said this week.
Yildiz broke out in 2024 after his first full year with the Juventus first team. He had scored five goals with his club, but the great Turkish Euro Cup It put him on another level. to him already Arda Gulerboth, like Huijsen, from 2005. Friends on and off the field, the young couple from Juve and Madrid led the Ottoman team in the German summer, where they reached the quarterfinals and became new icons of a dedicated country.
Spiritual return
Son of a Turkish immigrant who ended up in Germany, like millions of workers who moved to central Europe in search of a better future, Yildiz’s rejection of the German national team and his desire to play for Turkey represent the spiritual return home of several generations of immigrants, who number in the millions in Germany.
After the tournament, Yildiz established his leadership at Juventus: 12 goals, three of them in the Club World Cupand seven assists in a mixed team, in constant crisis for being unable to match Naples and Inter, the dominators of Calcio in recent years. Now, the ‘new’ Del Piero threatens Madrid.